Byrd Memoir Laments Early Fling With Klan as 'foolish Mistake'

[mom cat]

Byrd Memoir Laments Early Fling With Klan as 'foolish Mistake'

By Vicki Smith Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 19, 2005


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBLZHJR5AE.html



MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - The Ku Klux Klan is the central paradox of Robert C. Byrd's life - "an extraordinarily foolish mistake" that has haunted him for 40 years but the very thing that launched one of the longest careers in the U.S. Senate.
"It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me, and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career and reputation," the West Virginia Democrat says in an autobiography being released Monday. "I displayed very bad judgment, due to immaturity and a lack of seasoned reasoning."

It's a mistake he has paid for time and again, the only significant scandal ever attached to a man who next June stands to become the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.

Even now, with the 2006 election more than 18 months away, Republicans are using it in their campaign to oust him. Byrd has not declared whether he will run again, and his book gives no hints.

"Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields" chronicles his 87 years, from boyhood to his re-election in 2000. But at 770 pages, the $35 paperback from West Virginia University Press is more weighty tome than light reading.

[EST]

1. Growing up in W.Va.

A half century ago, in a hard r/w household, I was was sold the klan in a totally different fashion. There were many, many very poor families, families who, for one reason or another, fell to the lowest rung of the economic ladder and never moved off.
One of the things the klan would do was to set up a highly publicized charity giveaway and lots of "we take care of our own" speeches to sell the general public on the notion that the KKK was actually a charitable organization, with the occasional hothead thrown in, here and there.

Imagine that - the klan is a charitable organization and the reports you might hear are, no doubt, wildly exaggerated. If this doesn't actually lead you to be defensive of these right wing morons, at least it does make you more likely to be sympathetic, or slower to blame them for their atrocities.

In the area and arena where I lived, Byrd was pretty universally disliked, with the most common picture being that of the biggest hog at the trough.